Speakers for this event

• Wadah Khanfar

  Wadah Khanfar

  President of The Al Sharq Forum

  Wadah Khanfar is the President of the Al Sharq Forum and former Director General of the Al Jazeera Network. He is a board member of the International Crisis Group and Global Editors Network (GEN). Khanfar has been named as one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 global thinkers of 2011 as well as one of Fast Company’s ‘Most Creative People in Business’ of the year.

  President of The Al Sharq Forum

• Galip Dalay

  Galip Dalay

  Senior Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Strategic Research

  Research director at Al Sharq Forum and senior associate fellow on Turkey and Kurdish Affairs at Al Jazeera Center for Studies. He previously worked as a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin and as a political researcher at SETA Foundation in Ankara. He is a regular contributor to German Marshall Fund of the United States’ on Turkey policy brief series, and a columnist for Middle East Eye.

  Senior Associate Fellow at Al Sharq Stra...

• DLAWER ALA - ALDEEN

  DLAWER ALA - ALDEEN

  President of Middle East Research Institute (MERI)

  Dlawer Ala’Aldeen is the Founding President of the Middle East Research Institute, a policy research institute and think tank based in Erbil, Kurdistan Region (KR) of Iraq (meri-k.org). Between 2009-2012, he was the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Kurdistan Regional Government, where he lead an ambitious reform program to modernise the higher education system in KR. Prior to this, he was the Professor of Medicine in Nottingham University, UK. He worked in capacity building and nation-building projects in Iraq since 1992 and published extensively on the political dynamics, governance system and democratisation in the Middle East, Iraq and KR.

  President of Middle East Research Instit...

• Gunter Seufert

  Gunter Seufert

  Senior Researcher at the German Institute for International Security Affairs in Berlin

  Gunter Seufert is a senior researcher at the German Institute for International Security Affairs in Berlin. He has focused on political developments in Turkey and the Cyprus dispute. He served as a correspondent for newspapers during 2001-2004 and between 2007-2010 in Istanbul, German, Switzerland and Austria. He was a visiting lecturer at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia. In Turkey, he has taught Middle East Studies department between 2004-2007. He worked as a researcher and director of the German Oriental Society Institute which is Located in central Beirut between the years 1996-2001. Seufert has sociology doctorate at the University of Lausanne and has worked as a postdoctoral researcher.

  Senior Researcher at the German Institut...

• Saban Kardas

  Saban Kardas

  TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara

  Saban Kardas is the President of ORSAM and a faculty member at the Department of International Relations at TOBB University. He has published scholarly articles and book chapters on Turkish domestic and foreign policies, human rights, energy policies and international security and has been an occasional contributor to Turkish and international media. He has taught classes at Diplomacy Academy, Sakarya University, Police Academy and Turkish Military Academy. He received his doctoral degree in political science from the University of Utah. Dr. Kardas also holds a master’s degree in international relations from the METU in Ankara, and a second master’s degree in European Studies from the Center for European Integration Studies in Bonn, Germany.

  TOBB University of Economics and Technol...

• Etyen Mahcupyan

  Etyen Mahcupyan

  Journalist, Turkey

  Journalist, Turkey

• Gurkan Zengin

  Gurkan Zengin

  Journalist, Turkey

  Journalist, Turkey

• Burhanettin Duran

  Burhanettin Duran

  General Coordinator, SETA Foundation, Ankara

  General Coordinator, SETA Foundation, An...

• Nathalie Tocci

  Nathalie Tocci

  Deputy Director, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome

  Deputy Director, Istituto Affari Interna...

• Joost Hiltermann

  Joost Hiltermann

  Middle East & North Africa Program Director, International Crisis Group

  Joost Hiltermann is Program Director, Middle East & North Africa, at the International Crisis Group, for which he has worked in various capacities since 2002. Before that, he was Executive Director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch (1994-2002) and database coordinator and research coordinator at the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq in Ramallah (1985-1990). He holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

  Middle East & North Africa Program Direc...

• Ali Bayramoglu

  Ali Bayramoglu

  Writer and Political Commentator

  Ali Bayramoglu is a Turkish writer and political commentator. He wrote for Yeni Safak daily until 2016. He was a professor at Marmara University between 1981-1999.

  Writer and Political Commentator

• Rusen Cakir

  Rusen Cakir

  Journalist at Medyascope

  Rusen Cakir is a Turkish journalist and political commentator. He worked for Tempo, Cumhuriyet, Milliyet, CNN Türk, Vatan, and NTV. He wrote for Haberturk until 2016. He is currently managing Medyascope, an online media platform.

  Journalist at Medyascope

• Abdurrahman Kurt

  Abdurrahman Kurt

  Former MP

  Abdurrahman Kurt is a politician. He was an MP at the Turkish Parliament. He was a founding president of Gönül Köprüsü Derneği.

  Former MP

• Abbas Vali

  Abbas Vali

  Faculty Member at Bogazici University

  Abbas Vali is a faculty member at Sociology Department of Bogazici University. In 1976, he received an MA in Politics from the University of Keele. Then in 1983, he obtained his PhD in Sociology from University of London. Dr. Vali has authored numerous books and articles on the Kurdish nationalism and also Iran. He currently teaches Modern Social and Political Theory in the Department of Sociology at Bogazici University in Istanbul.

  Faculty Member at Bogazici University

• Denise Natali

  Denise Natali

  Director of Center for Strategic Research

  Dr. Denise Natali is the Director and Distinguished Research Fellow of the Center for Strategic Research at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) where she specializes on the Middle East, Iraq, trans-border Kurdish issue, and post-conflict stabilization. Dr. Natali joined INSS in January 2011 as the Minerva Chair, following more than two decades of researching and working in the Kurdish regions of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria. At INSS, Dr. Natali provides Middle East security analyses and strategic support to senior leaders at the Department of Defense, unified combatant commands, State Department, intelligence communities, and the broader national security community. She is a subject matter expert and part of the Senior Advisory Group for the strategic assessment of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in support of the Joint Staff, SOCCENT and CENTCOM.

  Director of Center for Strategic Researc...